Historian Rick Atkinson stated in a recent talk that Americans tend to view the American Revolution through a kind of rosy haze. In Fate of the Day: The American War for Independence, Atkinson lays bare the myth, revealing instead the long, bloody war of lost treasure and immense suffering.
In this second volume of his trilogy, Atkinson chronicles defeat after defeat that Colonial forces suffered at the hands of the British and their Hessian mercenaries. Saratoga, Brandywine, Philadelphia, Penobscot Bay, and Monmouth all contributed to the Americans’ losses.
Fellow historian, the late David McCullough, gave a speech to the National Book Foundation in which he said, “Think how tough our predecessors were. Think what they had been through. There’s no one who hasn’t an ancestor who went through some form of hell.”
What Atkinson does so well is detail the hardships, notably the lack of shoes, as well as food and munitions for the troops. By citing contemporary sources, readers can gain firsthand experience of the difficulties that soldiers and civilians faced. The British, when angered, were vicious, burning and looting, and in the West (what is now parts of New York and Ohio), using Iroquois warriors to wreak havoc on the settlers.
What We Learn
What we gain is not only history but a masterful lesson in determination and perseverance told by a master storyteller. As a reporter for The Washington Post, Atkinson covered the Iraq War and wrote The Liberation Trilogy, an account of the American military’s involvement in Europe during World War II. This experience gives Atkinson a perspective of war that does not sugarcoat but captures the struggle that is war and how it defines our military and the nation it serves.
Lessons to be gained
Perseverance. You achieve little if you give up at the first sign of hardship. Had that been the case, Americans would still be speaking the King’s English and paying taxes to the Crown.
Purpose. You cannot build something new – or lasting – if the individuals building it do not cohere under the banner of a singular purpose – a cause greater than ourselves.
Courage. What you create relies upon those who build it as well as those who lead the builders. Leaders evolve to meet the moment. And in the American Revolution, we had a plethora of men – and women – who met the call to action, willing to put all that they owned on the line for the nascent cause.
Liberty. Freedom is not a given. While it is earned through sacrifice, it is given to all to adhere to the core values of the enterprise. Freedom for one does not exclude the liberty of those with whom we disagree.
Making history real
“History shows us how to behave,” writes David McCullough. “History teaches, reinforces what we believe in, what we stand for, and what we ought to be willing stand up for. History is – or should be – the bedrock of patriotism, not the chest-pounding kind of patriotism but the real thing, love of country.”
Such words exemplify the sacrifice that our forefathers showed during the American Revolution and serve as a fitting tribute to the story of Rick Atkinson.
And there was more to come.
At the close of this book. Atkinson quotes Washington’s confidential letters to Congress – and to the French authorities supporting the American effort: “This is a decisive moment, one of the most – I will go further & say the most important America has ever seen.”
We, of course, know what came next, but what makes history come alive is its retelling when the participants – as McCullough often said – were experiencing it in real time.